The present invention relates generally to gardening devices and methods and more specifically to a tilling machine, method of use and method of gardening.
Due to both the economical benefits and the personal gratification of having a successful garden, gardening has become enormously popular. Commercially and privately, gardens can be found in all parts of the world. Also equally, if not more important is the practice of landscaping. As such, improvements and new innovations to gardening/landscaping tools can have a universally enormous beneficial impact.
Every year, gardeners cultivate their gardens and landscapers plant new flowers, shrubs and trees. Generally, this is accomplished by manually digging or using a tiller. In view of the present invention, these methods, however, are disadvantageous. Manual digging is labor intensive, slow and thus, inefficient. Most tillers are difficult to operate and require a great deal of pushing or pulling in order to cultivate the soil. In addition, it is often difficult to cultivate to a predetermined depth consistently. Moreover, due to the design of known tillers, more soil is cultivated than is needed, resulting in wasted energy and space. For instance, it is often desirable to cultivate only a narrow (6 inches to 12 inches wide) trench to plant flowers, vegetables or the like. However, with a tiller, the minimum width that can be cultivated is usually 2 feet to 3 feet wide.
In large fields, a weighted trenching plow pulled by a tractor has been utilized for digging narrow trenches. However, this method also has many disadvantages. For instance, as is obvious, due to the size of most tractors, this method is not practicable for smaller gardens and landscaping. For these smaller applications, riding lawnmowers or minitractors are sometimes utilized to pull a lighter and smaller trenching plow. However, due to the limited power of these machines, the reduced weight of the digging plows and the hardness of the ground, it is often necessary to till the area prior to utilizing the digging plows.
Even if the ground is suitable and the area is of appropriate size for the above methods, these methods remain to be disadvantageous. More specifically, after the first pass with either a hoe or a digging plow, amendments are added to the trench and then it is necessary to manually mix the amendments or to replow. Unfortunately, however, manual mixing is labor intensive and replowing does not adequately mix the amendments with the evacuated dirt.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a device that can cultivate soil at a uniform depth, can efficient mix amendments with the evacuated soil and is easy to control and maneuver.
According to its major aspects and broadly stated, the present invention is a tilling machine and a method of gardening/landscaping. The tilling machine generally comprises a digging chain that moves between a raised position and a lowered position, a housing that is carried by a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear casters, a motor that independently drives front wheels to propel housing, swivel handles that allow the user to avoid straddling the trench, a guide wheel that aligns tilling machine with trench upon a second pass, and an angled closure plow that collects and deposits the surrounding dirt back into the trench.
Generally, on the first pass, the digging chain is engaged and then lowered until a desired depth is cut into the ground. The digging chain is then secured at this preferred position. As desired by the user, the handles may be swiveled to the side to allow the user to walk beside the machine and thus avoid the need to straddle the trench. Next, the left and right front wheels are engaged by depressing left and right squeeze bars thus propelling the machine forward. After the desired length of trench is achieved, the machine is easily rotated 180 degrees by releasing one of the squeeze bars, thereby allowing only one front wheel to rotate. With the digging chain down, the machine will pivot about the digging chain within an extremely small radius. Amendments, such as fertilizer, lime, topsoil, peat moss and the like can then be added to the trench as desired.
On the second pass, the angled closure plow, positioned either on the front or the back, is lowered to contact the ground or to be in close proximity therewith. The guide wheel can then be lowered within the trench to assist in guiding the machine along the trench. Again the squeeze bars are depressed and the machine moves forward. As the machine moves down the trench, an angled front closure plows push the dirt evacuated on the first pass back into the trench and the digging chain mixes the amendments with the plowed dirt. Alternately, an angled rear plow also pushes any dirt that was evacuated during the mixing back into the trench.
One of the major features of the present invention is the independently driven wheels. With independently driven wheels, the tilling machine has a sharp turning radius. The tilling machine can be rotated about 360 degrees. As a result, the tilling machine is much more versatile than trenching machines that can only be propelled in an approximately straight line.
Another important feature of the present invention is the angled closure plow. Instead of being required to fill the trench by a different instrument, the unique angled configuration of the plow collects and deposits the dirt back into the trench so that additional work is not required. Consequently, the tilling machine is much more efficient than prior art trenchers.
Another important feature of the present invention is the ability to rotate the handle assembly in a horizontal plane. With the handle assembly rotated to a nonparallel position relative to the tilling machine housing, the user is able to propel the tilling machine without straddling the trench.
Another important feature of the present invention is that the tension of the drive belt for the digging chain is set such that the belt will slip if a rock, stump or the like is encountered to reduce the likelihood of bodily injury, broken or premature wear on the digging chain and inconsistent ground cultivation resulting when the machine jumps or skips.
Another important feature of the present invention is the adjustable digging chain. The digging chain can be placed in a plurality of positions thereby resulting in the possibility of a multitude of digging depths.
Another important feature of the present invention is the roller guide for guiding the tilling machine on the second pass. Prior to starting the second pass, the roller guide can be lowered into the trench. The horizontally positioned roller is in close proximity to the edges of the trench thereby reducing the amount of free play and thus guiding the tilling machine within the trench.
Another important feature of the present invention is the new and improved method of gardening/landscaping that maintains the vegetation cover between trenched rows thus utilizing only the ground area that is needed. Soil amendments are needed only in the open trench and not in the row middles, thus using only a fraction of amendments utilized in other methods.
Another important feature of the present invention is the new and improved method of gardening/landscaping that facilitates the installation of below ground drip or trickle irrigation lines without the need to make separate digs. Drip or trickle irrigation lines can be installed after the second pass wherein the rear closure plows are raised in the up position, thus leaving the trench open. A third pass can be performed to close the trench wherein the digging chain in the raised disengaged position and the front or rear plows are in the lowered position.
Another important feature of the present invention is the new and improved method of gardening/landscaping that maintains the vegetation cover between trenched rows thus allowing entry into the garden during rainy periods without becoming muddy.
Another important feature of the present invention is the new and improved method of gardening/landscaping that allows gardening/landscaping on sloped ground by maintaining the vegetation cover between trenched rows thus resulting in less erosion.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent to one skilled in the art from the following description and claims when read in light of the accompanying drawings.